I have, 1996 sw2 Manuel. 186000 miles. I had 2 codes 1406 and p304, the clogged Egr valve and a leaky gasket affecting the 4th spark plug. I drove like this for 6 + months. shift cable broke.

Car sat for 3/4 months because of a broken shift cable. Once the cable got fixed I went to my mechanic he ( supposedly ) replaced the gaskets and installed a new clutch, and hydrolic clutch.

I have changed the battery, spark plug cables, cleaned egr valve, I still have some leaky oil/or oil burning. But the car was still hesitating and loss of power. Pepboys said it was due to low compression in Cylinder #4. no more 1406 egr valve code...

pepboys said that it can be a burnt valve, or a exhaust leak or a blown cylinder.

The car smokes more that the rat pack did. I have added Restorer, engine restorer to the oil to test the compression. I have also added some stp multipurpose motor treatment for the gas to test the fuel injectors.

The Fuel filter most likely never has been changed.
There is a bunch of Carbon blown out the tail pipe and smoke when starting.

MPG has dropped from 35mpg to 30mpg.

Its hard to start when cold and smokes alot or chokes out/stalls. Lots of hesitation when starting. But sometimes if it sits long enough it sometimes starts up fine But then when I shift into gear and try to move the power drops and the car stalls or hesitates heavy around 1 rpm not 1000.
car idles fine to me.

once the dramatics stops from starting up the car runs fine Up until the power loss around 2000 rpms going into 5th gear.

But after replacing cables it doesnt hesitate as much but still lacks power. going into 5th gear. and sometimes second gear.

Once the car is warmed, the smoke lessons. but when starting from a cold start I am SPY HUNTER.

Tried the Carb Cleaner in the air intake when on. that seemed to work for a second. IT felt like the power came back. or it could be running rich. i have no clue.

Can a warped valve cover cause my p304?
the p304 is a blinking light. It blinks only when I am idling. But stops blinking when Im moving. Could it also be that the #4 cylinder is just super dirty?

If its a burnt Valve how do i fix it. Im out of money dumped all my cash into this and got nothing but a p304. I had to buy a new car and now Im fixing this one for fun and learning. I want to sell it but I want to make sure that it runs good and proper.

pepboys manager told me p304 was only a bad spark plug and let me go. so i didnt get it check out right away. They promoted that manager guy. the Master Mechanic who worked on my car said if he knew about that problem, the p304/1406 he wouldnt have let the car leave the shop. I dont think the manager told the mechanic to do an engine check after I paid for one.

...SW2 owner....

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I Did a quick spark plug test to see if oil is still going into the #4 cylinder chamber. I changed out the Plug for a new one reset the code with a Battery unplug, put eveything together. with new plug. started up. Check engine came on. pulled out the plug. Wet with oil. Need help asap.

...SW2 owner....

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60 psi on cylinder#4 usually means worn piston rings. Compression should be around 185 psi. A burned exhaust valve is a possibility too but to isolate and determine whether its one or the other requires a simple test; squirt some motor oil into the cylinder and run a wet compression test. Extra oil can help worn piston rings seal better and result in raising compression, what's expected between a dry and wet compression test if rings are worn. A burned exhaust valve won't seal at all with a wet compression test showing little to no improvement in compression numbers. In either situation, a worn engine is probably the reason for misfiring in cylinder#4, P0304.

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60 psi on cylinder#4 usually means worn piston rings. Compression should be around 185 psi. A burned exhaust valve is a possibility too but to isolate and determine whether its one or the other requires a simple test; squirt some motor oil into the cylinder and run a wet compression test. Extra oil can help worn piston rings seal better and result in raising compression, what's expected between a dry and wet compression test if rings are worn. A burned exhaust valve won't seal at all with a wet compression test showing little to no improvement in compression numbers. In either situation, a worn engine is probably the reason for misfiring in cylinder#4, P0304.

So I am on the right track using the restore...engine restorer....it is said that restore especially works for the rings and compression. so now i have to run and smoke out all the additives then see where Im at. I have been turning the engine on and off every day to run it a little going up and down the block. so far no hesitation starting, still a ton of smoke and no check engine light either. im so close to losing all my money vs getting some back.

Would adding a thicker oil help me?

...SW2 owner....

Last edited by Coachvtennis; 11-05-2015 at 03:14 PM..
Reason: adding a question.

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You're now at the split in the road where there's a boat load of opinions for and against oil and fuel additives in hopes of correcting either a stuck set of piston rings and/or attempting to correct already worn rings and/or scratched cylinder wall. Never opening the engine to make a physical examination leads to all the guessing games on any forum. Oil additives, thicker oil, fuel treatments, engine restorer, engine soaks, etc., are all guesses because no one can tell you what's wrong since no one has opened your engine to examine where the problem lies. The only thing you can do to save any money being thrown away on magic cures that hardly works is to make a dry and then wet compression test. These two tests are for checking mechanical condition that addresses worn piston rings and valve wear. Not doing this leaves all sorts of second guessing and how to throw away money on what's basically either no change at all or minor improvement but still a temporary cure. This is taking into account your engine is now well beyond new car warranty and well into a used engine with normal wear and tear where its purely coincidental how one engine can have absolutely no oil consumption issue and another engine with exactly the same mileage is burning a quart of oil every 200 miles.............. Each owner drives and maintains his/her car ever so slightly different to make the vast difference in oil issues. There are few members here that can state their oil consumption issues were fixed permanently without tearing down and rebuilding. Everyone else is still swearing by their method of engine treatment using everything sold over the counter to lower but never fully eliminate oil consumption. You're at the point where you'll have all the opinions and will have to make a decision on your own. I don't have any because the question about wet and dry compression is yet to be performed so a better assessment can be given. I'm sure I'm not alone with this suggestion but it is your choice to follow suggestions or ignore it. As I see it, a compression test costs nothing but time. All other suggestions costs money.

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If you're asking why PepBoys didn't perform a compression test might be that it takes time so there might be a fee for this. Getting free code readings does not include work like driving your car into a service bay, popping the hood open and if the engine's already warm, taking extra care to remove things out of the way before trying to remove spark plugs on a hot engine without stripping aluminum heads, handling hot plugs and trying to connect a compression gauge for a compression test. I don't know any shop willing to do this free. Maybe where you live but in NYC time is money. Free readings from Autozone are just that, nothing more.

BTW, when you did a reset to the engine computer by disconnecting battery cable(s), what you don't see may bite you in the ass. While the check engine light is off, resetting the pcm forces the emissions self tests to start from the beginning, requiring the dreaded drive cycle taking up to 50 miles of varied speeds between local and highway driving; sensors related to emissions are part of the readiness monitors that were reset and only a reader will display these readiness monitors in 'Not Ready' status. The drive cycle entails emissions tests for each monitor to pass until they all meet/pass tests when the 'Ready' status is displayed. Emissions inspection stations will see this immediately as soon as they plug in their computer to the same port you use to plug in a reader for decoding error codes. They will see the readiness monitors in 'Not Ready' mode and will not go any further and tell you emissions failed. You would see the same if you use a reader before going for state inspection. As it is, you're now required to drive the car for a few days or whatever it takes to accumulate enough miles in varied driving modes until a reader will display a ready status, the indication that all emissions self tests have passed and your car will pass state emissions inspection.

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